Nursing Students Find Prescription for Success
In Montclair State’s new high-tech nursing skills laboratory recently, Sandy Hussain, a registered nurse, demonstrated how she cares for an infant after delivery with a lifelike computerized mannequin. The University’s new School of Nursing began just two years ago and Hussain was part of the inaugural class of RNs who earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree in May.
The School of Nursing Convocation on May 18 was a milestone in the young life of the School. In September, the University welcomed 50 freshmen into the newly launched, four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program. Montclair State plans to offer a new online Master of Science in Nursing degree by fall 2018.
Hussain works on the maternity floor at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and, like her classmates, had a variety of reasons – higher salaries, education requirements, greater job opportunities – for entering the RN to BSN program. She and her classmates were also attracted to the University’s hybrid RN to BSN format that combines classroom and online learning.
“The advanced classwork has given me that extra education to think deeper, help patients better, to think outside of the box,” says Erin Fitzmaurice, an RN in the Atlantic Health System, who also earned the BSN degree.
By filling a demand for highly qualified nurses, Montclair State supports the complexities of providing care for individuals across the lifespan. The School of Nursing facility features high-tech mannequins in a simulation lab designed to address the learning needs of students at all levels as they care for persons in varying states of health.
During Convocation, School of Nursing Dean Janice Smolowitz described the 24 graduates as “risk-takers who joined us with the goal of creating something meaningful and outstanding.”